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Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

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51–60 of 318 posts

Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

#52

Plastics should be taxed.

Because plastic is so cheap, producers will pay the tax, continue using plastic, and pass the costs onto consumers. Given the higher cost of other materials, changing consumer behavior (which is not easy, but it's happening right now, and achievable through further exposure and education) may be the only way to change producers' behavior. While a tax seems like an easy fix, it may also cause the government to come to…

> Because plastic is so cheap, producers will pay the tax, continue using plastic, and pass the costs onto consumers.

That's the point: the higher the tax is, the more attractive the alternatives are.

Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

#53
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm intrigued, still the sceptic in me thinks that most victims of type 2 diabetes are probably just victims of the simpler answer, which is occupying a body that has been exposed to too great amounts of fat (from especially oils and other processed foods) over too great a time period. However, I can only imagine the amount of harm continued consumption of plastic over a long period of time will do to a body, and I f…

Type 2 Diabetes is caused by carbs/sugar overconsumption, not fats. A ketogenic diet (high fat, moderate protein, low carb) diet reverses T2D in most people.

Carbs nor sugar causes T2 diabetes. Simply put, sugar (refined or in food with a high glycemic level) becomes dangerous when you are diabetic because you body can't handle it because the arteries are plagued (from overconsumption of fat) so the sugar becomes trapped in the blood instead of escaping and being processed as it should, and as it's trapped in the blood it will build up to dangerous levels.

The reason a ketogenic diet reverses type 2 diabetes in some people are because either a) those people go from eating extremely unhealthy to following a specific diet or b) they eat less calories than their bodies use thus they loose weight and thus the plague built-up can reverse. A ketogenic diet that allows too much fat will give you type 2 diabetes just like any other diet that allows for too high fat consumption.

Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

#54
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"There are literally hundreds of papers on BPA and its links with diabetes." There are literally not. The review you've linked to cites a handful of papers involving minor effects observed in mouse studies. Moreover, the paper you originally cited proves nothing even approximating a mechanism. I'm not suggesting anything about the safety of BPA, but it's utter nonsense to claim that it is a more plausible explanation…

But is it really? Elevated blood glucose, as in Type 2 Diabetes, has LONG been known to be primarily driven by excessive production of glucose by the liver due to liver insulin resistance. In fact, the way that the drug metformin improves diabetes is by shutting that pathway down. http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/50/8/1807.short Thats not dietary, thats the hormone insulin being ignored by the liver. This…

TCF7L2 is a transcription factor. It is involved in many pathways in human biology, of which diabetes is one.

Observing that it is downregulated in diabetics provides no evidence for or against any theories concerning BPA.

Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

#55
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Type 2 Diabetes is caused by carbs/sugar overconsumption, not fats. A ketogenic diet (high fat, moderate protein, low carb) diet reverses T2D in most people.

Carbs nor sugar causes T2 diabetes. Simply put, sugar (refined or in food with a high glycemic level) becomes dangerous when you are diabetic because you body can't handle it because the arteries are plagued (from overconsumption of fat) so the sugar becomes trapped in the blood instead of escaping and being processed as it should, and as it's trapped in the blood it will build up to dangerous levels. The reason a ke…

It is much much harder to consume enough fats to have the same caloric intake as carbs. That’s the whole reason keto works.

Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

#56

Plastics should be taxed.

Couple of points: Taxes don't work to work to change behavior, or people would have stopped speeding a long time ago, sugary drinks wouldn't sell in Seattle, and people would stop buying coffee in California. They are an unfortunate excuse used by politicians to fool the public into "hey I'm doing something!". Instead, innovation is needed around providing biodegradable solutions that can outcompete their plastic cou…

> Taxes don't work to work to change behavior, or people would have stopped speeding a long time ago, sugary drinks wouldn't sell in Seattle, and people would stop buying coffee in California.

You do realize "work" isn't a binary thing?

Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

#57

Plastics should be taxed.

Couple of points: Taxes don't work to work to change behavior, or people would have stopped speeding a long time ago, sugary drinks wouldn't sell in Seattle, and people would stop buying coffee in California. They are an unfortunate excuse used by politicians to fool the public into "hey I'm doing something!". Instead, innovation is needed around providing biodegradable solutions that can outcompete their plastic cou…

Increasing the cost of something (through taxes) most definitely changes behavior. Just look at a how plastic bag taxes reduced usage or cigarette taxes. The purpose is not to stop plastic usage entirely, but to recognize the true cost of the usage by factoring in the harmful effects now rather than down the road. That make it a fair market, not an artificial one. I agree research and innovation is needed, and tax revenue could help pay for it.

Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

#58
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Carbs nor sugar causes T2 diabetes. Simply put, sugar (refined or in food with a high glycemic level) becomes dangerous when you are diabetic because you body can't handle it because the arteries are plagued (from overconsumption of fat) so the sugar becomes trapped in the blood instead of escaping and being processed as it should, and as it's trapped in the blood it will build up to dangerous levels. The reason a ke…

It is much much harder to consume enough fats to have the same caloric intake as carbs. That’s the whole reason keto works.

That's irrelevant. It's still the fat that causes type 2 diabetes. That doesn't mean keto can't work because it clearly can as long as it doesn't lead to overconsumption of fat.

Also there are different kinds of carbs. As long as you keep to whole-food carbs, you practically can't eat too many (except for a few kinds like nuts and seeds and avocados) because you will be full long before it's too much. It's a different story with processed carbs, where you almost have eaten too much just by looking at them.

Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

#59
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are literally hundreds of papers on BPA and its links with diabetes. The only difference now is that we have the molecular culprit behind the trend. https://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/center-science-and-democracy...

"There are literally hundreds of papers on BPA and its links with diabetes." There are literally not. The review you've linked to cites a handful of papers involving minor effects observed in mouse studies. Moreover, the paper you originally cited proves nothing even approximating a mechanism. I'm not suggesting anything about the safety of BPA, but it's utter nonsense to claim that it is a more plausible explanation…

No, there literally are hundreds. Look at the graph in pubmed.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=bisphenol+a

Forgive me, but I don't have time for this.

Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

#60
post #9

I strongly suspect that within about 50-100 years something will evolve that can digest all of this plastic. Which will probably cause us as a society to move back to glass and metal as storage components.

Something similar to that happened when fungi evolved the ability to break down lignin.

http://feedthedatamonster.com/home/2014/7/11/how-fungi-saved...

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